September 7, 2010— NATIONAL REPORT—Social media Wesbsites such as Facebook and Twitter have drawn in vast amounts of people exchanging ideas and information. But what do they have to do with the hotel industry? More specifically, what do they have to do with a hotel's property management system (PMS)?

Guests are getting more tech savvy every day, and hotels have to find ways to keep up with them. Michael Hraba, director of communications, The Waterford Hotels & Inns in San Mateo, CA, noted that hotel companies, in the past, were not technology pioneers. "Pioneers get shot in the back with arrows," he said. "But now it's not an option. [Hotels] now need to keep up with the highest of tech people."

In this case, it's the latest trend just starting to take root of using social media to drive bookings.

And not just sending someone to the hotel's website, but widgets and landing pages made specifically for the social media sites which are tied into the hotel PMS system.

The two biggest are Facebook and Twitter, and each offers a very different way to reach potential guests.

Facebook, noted Jeremy Vandermeij, creative director of the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, Canada, is a much more visual medium, suitable for widgets with high-end images to draw guests in. Twitter, on the other hand, is limited to not only just words, but 140 characters, but it also has the potential to reach a much wider audience much more quickly.

"Not to be too simplistic," Hraba said, "it's another distribution channel."

He believes that while social media is still very new, and changing almost daily in some cases, hotels can't afford not to be in the space. "People are using it whether you want them to or not," he noted. "Just visiting a website isn't how people use the Internet anymore; they want to cull through real experiences. [They are in] control of your brand now."

To that end, Hraba noted, any hotel company that doesn't have a presence where people are congregating is missing out on a huge opportunity. Even if, he said, you hear more complaints than praise, it's a chance to impress people with your response and turn a negative situation into something people talk about for the right reasons.

When it comes to social media, hotels can't afford to look at number of rooms or nights booked as the only measure of success. Both Hraba and Vandermeij were quick to point out that metrics for social media are still in their infancy; there just isn't a solid system to track it, since a mention on Facebook might lead to a phone call that leads to a booking but the guest might never mention they first heard about the property online. The trick is to have as many ways for them to connect with the hotel as possible, in whatever manner they choose, be it the hotel website, their cell phone, a widget on Facebook or a link to a special landing page on Twitter. "If the booking engine isn't there to capture those people, you're missing out," said Hraba.

The debate is whether consumers in general see the Internet as a marketplace. Vandermeij, for his part, has been surprised by how much people buy online, and how much visibility their social media campaigns have gotten them. Hraba, on the other hand, remains a skeptic, despite being heavily into implementing social media strategies. "It's a new business model," Hraba noted.

"There are not millions of consumers on there thinking of it as a marketplace, but if you're not there for those who are, you're missing out. That's the point," he noted.

One thing both men pointed out was that the companies who design and manage PMS software are all very quick to innovate. Maestro, the company which Gladstone utilizes, has been very proactive about coming up with ideas and implementing them very quickly, according to Vandermeij. "I have lots of crazy requests, and they're like yes, we're going to do it, and they do," he said.

The other trick to using social media to effectively drive traffic to the property is to use it wisely. Both noted that flooding people with "buy now" messages is going to turn them off.

"We try to curate things on Twitter and Facebook to enhance the brand," said Vandermeij. "Things happening with the hotel, artists who designed the hotel, events, etc. are the focus of our tweets and Facebook posts."

Hraba concurred, noting that, "'Here's our deal today' messages are turning people off. Big brands are losing interactions because people are tuning them out. Consumers might want to hear it, but you're doing it wrong and it turns them off. Attention is equity—the more you post, the less you have. You need to cultivate that attention for your brand. No one wants to get a phone call 25 times a day; no one wants that many social media posts either. It's exhausting."It's all about engaging the guests and potential guests in conversation, and creating a dialogue that in turn will build brand loyalty and drive bookings. Solving customer issues as they come up, highlighting stories where people had good things to say, and always, both men stressed, keep it real. Vandermeij signs his tweets and posts so people know the individual it comes from, not just the company. And Hraba makes a point of keeping his contact information handy on the sites, noting he has gotten many calls and emails based on things he's posted.